Share

The national discussion about the economic value of a college education tends to revolve around the outcomes of “humanities majors.” This framing, however, masks important differences between two distinct groups: (1) graduates for whom a baccalaureate was the last of their formal schooling (designated here as “terminal bachelor’s holders” or TBHs); and (2) those humanities majors who went on to complete an advanced degree in the humanities or another field. The indicators below describe how TBHs from the humanities are distributed among occupations. As is true of humanities majors who go on to pursue advanced degrees, these workers are more likely than their counterparts with baccalaureate degrees in most of the other major academic fields (aside from education) to be working in education-related occupations.1

Endnotes

  • 1For information regarding the occupational distribution of all humanities majors, irrespective of subsequent education, see the supplemental table.

III-02a: Occupational Distribution of Holders of a Terminal Bachelor’s Degree in the Humanities, 2021*

Copy link

* Currently employed workers. Reported jobs are those respondents currently held or the last they worked. Respondents who worked more than one job at a time were asked to report the job at which they worked the most hours.
** Includes education administrators, teaching assistants, tutors, school psychologists, and workers categorized by the U.S. Census Bureau as “other teachers and instructors.”
† Encompasses military-specific occupations and those in production, transportation, and material moving; construction, extraction, maintenance, and repair; sports; and farming, fishing, and forestry. For further details regarding the occupations included in each category used in the graph, see the
ACS-HI Crosswalk.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2021 American Community Survey Public-Use Microdata Sample. Data analyzed and presented by the American Academy of Arts Sciences’
Humanities Indicators (www.humanitiesindicators.org).

The information presented here on the occupations of college graduates who majored in the humanities is based on an original analysis by the Humanities Indicators (HI) of data from the American Community Survey (ACS), which has been administered on an annual basis by the U.S. Census Bureau since 2005. The ACS replaced the “long form” version of the decennial census and collects information—used to allocate billions in state and federal funding—about Americans’ personal characteristics, family composition, employment, income, and housing.

The ACS permits respondents to specify up to two fields of bachelor’s degree. For the purposes of this analysis, an individual was counted as having a bachelor’s degree in the humanities if the field of either reported degree was within the scope of the humanities as specified by the HI.

Information regarding the occupations included in each category in the graph and specific degree programs grouped under each broad field heading is provided in the ACS-HI Crosswalk.

Copy link

* Currently employed workers. Respondents who worked more than one job at a time were asked to report the job at which they worked the most hours.
** Includes science and engineering occupations, among others.
† Encompasses military-specific occupations and those in production, transportation, and material moving; construction, extraction, maintenance, and repair; sports; and farming, fishing, and forestry. For further details regarding the occupations included in each category used in the graph, see the
ACS-HI Crosswalk.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2021 American Community Survey Public-Use Microdata Sample. Data analyzed and presented by the American Academy of Arts Sciences’ Humanities Indicators (www.humanitiesindicators.org).

The information presented here on the occupations of college graduates who majored in the humanities is based on an original analysis by the Humanities Indicators (HI) of data from the American Community Survey (ACS), which has been administered on an annual basis by the U.S. Census Bureau since 2005. The ACS replaced the “long form” version of the decennial census and collects information—used to allocate billions in state and federal funding—about Americans’ personal characteristics, family composition, employment, income, and housing.

The ACS permits respondents to specify up to two fields of bachelor’s degree. For the purposes of this analysis, an individual was counted as having a bachelor’s degree in the humanities if the field of either reported degree was within the scope of the humanities as specified by the HI.

Information regarding the occupations included in each category in the graph and specific degree programs grouped under each broad field heading is provided in the ACS-HI Crosswalk.

Back to Humanities Indicators
Share
if f.field_survey.value != 1